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No, I don't look this pretty while I'm working. :}

I am feverishly working in the studio.
I have a to do list 3 miles long.
Unfortunately, it all has to be done before I am allowed to blog. :(
Thanks for hanging in with me and I promise I will be back soon and get all caught up.
More Music Monday, Illustrator Tuesday, Video Wednesday and General Mayhem and Nuttiness, plus a few puns thrown in for good measure will return, as soon as these deadlines have been met.
My 10 minutes are up now, so I have to go.
Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!
Hugs!

Where in the World...

...would I go if I had the money to travel?

Where would I NOT go?!
You already know about my plans for England, but I thought I would share a few other places on the bucket list:

Cities in The US:
New York: A show on Broadway; general sightseeing
San Francisco: The Golden Gate Bridge; general sightseeing
San Diego: After the last few posts about a certain band, do I really need to explain this?
Seattle: General sightseeing
Boston: Boston Harbor, general sightseeing
Charleston: Historic homes; general sightseeing
Colonial Williamsburg: general sightseeing

Other Countries:
France: Paris; the palace at Versailles; general sightseeing
Prince Edward Island, Canada: The birthplace of Lucy Maud Montgomery; general sightseeing

There are more, but that's a start.  All that stands between me and crossing these trips off my list are three words:  Airfare, Childcare and Time to Spare.  (Yes, ok, technically 5 words, but you get the point!)

But I'm not giving up.  Some wonderful day...

What Up, Moon-pie!

I'm still here!  I'm just REALLY busy with a lot of good things!!!  Such as:

• Lucy Jane orders are pouring in which is AWESOME, so if anyone seriously needs me, I can usually be found at the sewing machine with both it and my iPod blazing full speed ahead!  Some new things just done will be posted on the Lucy Jane blog very soon.  Hopefully by tomorrow.

• Also Lucy Jane related, she's been booked for a hurrah-and-to-do Art thing in Marietta in August, so we have that to prepare for! :)

• Cute Gremlin #4 turned 4 years old yesterday!  (Picking myself up off the floor from the reality kick of that one.) We're having her party on Saturday so that Husband can be here from working out of town. (Still. More. Again.  This majorly sucks.  Lots.  SO grateful he's back for the weekend at least.)

• Cute Gremlin #2 is being inducted into Beta Club tomorrow afternoon! :D  For her big project this year she's getting me to teach her how to sew a basic skirt.  Cause she's awesome!

While I do all of this, I manage to do regular life on some level.  Groceries.  Laundry.  More fun things (than groceries and laundry), like letter writing and taking the Cute Gremlins to the Zoo.  

I'm trying to keep caught up here too, and I discovered this week that The Modest Peacock just hit 40,000 pageviews!!!!!!  WOW!  Y'all keep me amazed!  I'm humbled and grateful, especially since I have been neglecting a regular blogging schedule.  I promise to work on that, particularly with the A-Z Challenge and my 4th blogaversary coming up in April!

I have still been frequenting the library and reading amazing books, some of which have prompted a new scheduled feature here very soon (when I get the Lucy Jane stuff down to a dull roar and figure out the time tables.  It's all a delicate balancing act...).  Also while at the library, I've been borrowing the completed seasons of the TV show "The Big Bang Theory".  If you've never seen it, please do!  It's hysterical!  I identify with the Penny character on a lot of levels (I even just figured out how to do one of her super cute hair styles!), but there is a huge part of me that is a closet nerd too, so it's a great way to de-stress.  I especially love this clip*, which is what I'm going to leave you with as I fall in the bed and get back to my sewing in the morning.  I still have to clean up my messiness of scraps and thread and pattern pieces and whatnot before Husband gets in at lunchtime! 

*YouTube has disabled embedding, so you can watch it by following this link. Enjoy the clip!

February Gratitudes

February has come and gone!  It was a busy month, filled with good friends, letters in the mailbox, and so many blessings to be thankful for!!

• 2.29- Cutie Pie Emily making me smile every 5 minutes!
• 2.28- Dayquil
• 2.27- Voting
• 2.26- All the bills paid up
• 2.25- Inspiration for new projects and creative goodness!
• 2.24- Fish legs is tasty noms! :)
• 2.23- a whole day to myself to move furniture around, get organized and clean things up
• 2.22- Taking Gran out shopping
• 2.21- Fun time with kids, making green slime :)
• 2.20- Friend's surgery went well
• 2.19- Getting GRACED by 2 wonderful friends. You two are such blessings!!!
• 2.18- Good doctors for my Grandmama
• 2.17- Musical Numbers
• 2.16- Fantastic Bible Study time!
• 2.15- Half price chocolates/Valentine's candy
• 2.14- Friend who sent me Mr. Darcy in the mailbox and made my Valentine's Day not so horrible
• 2.13- More letters in my mailbox
• 2.12- Email about things relating to The Other Me that made my entire year!
• 2.11- Heat and warm blankets as the temps drop super fast outside.
• 2.10- Two people I love have a Birthday today!
• 2.9- A few questions answered
• 2.8- I found a few awesome treasures at the thrift store!
• 2.7- Letters in my mailbox
• 2.6- My brother-in-law, who has a birthday today
• 2.5- Someone who came to church
• 2.4- Strong headache medicine
• 2.3- The freedom to make a few long term plans
• 2.2- Pretty paper to write letters on
• 2.1- Meeting new friends through the Lettermo challenge

Thought I'd Share

As promised in my Gratitudes list, I am sharing this fabulous free printable day planner sheet that I started using last August.  It was created by Dani at Life's A Journal.  Follow the link to save the file, or use this one and blow it up to paper size.  Awesomeness.  You are very welcome. :)

Happy Christmas

It's Christmas Eve.  I am alone, in my room, perched precariously on one side of my bed, typing out a quick post so that you all don't think I've forgotten you.  The other side of my bed is filled with letter writing supplies, clean laundry that I haven't had time to put away yet, wrapping paper, my "to do" notebook, and other assorted ... stuff.

In the floor by my bed is a pile of gifts still to be wrapped.  I also have to work from noon until 6 tonight.  After I bake a batch of cookies as a gift for a family member I will see at 7:30 tonight, after work.  (They don't read this blog, so it's ok to mention it.)

I'm down from 40+ hours/week to under 30 on next week's work schedule, so I'm hoping to grab a few hours to seriously sit down and get all of my blogging news caught up.  Frank's had about a dozen adventures that need to be blogged still, and I've had more awesome mail, Music Mondays, book recommendations, and general life news to share that I just can't seem to get to unless I'm falling on my face tired and then the posts come out all disjointed and lame.  And I can't give you lame posts, dear readers.  That would be bad.

I hope you get what you want for Christmas.  I hope you spend the day in company with people you love and who love you.  Actually, I hope that's what you want for Christmas.  All the other stuff is just extra.  I love each and every one of you.  Remember that Christ is why we celebrate the season!  Love came down to us!  Emmanuel - God with us!

Blessings, warm fuzzies, love and twinkle lights.  Those are a few of my wishes for you, not just today and tomorrow, but for a long time to come.

See you soon.

Merry, Merry Christmas.

Love,
Jenny

Hi!

Just popping in to say Hello!

God has blessed me so much with this new job!  (Even if I did accidentally drop a cookie jar yesterday while we were condensing the Christmas aisles.  It made a spectacular crash but no one was hurt, thankfully.)  I'm working a LOT of hours, which means I'm hard pressed to get everything else done, but I'm getting there.  The wedding photos from the other weekend are nearly done; Lucy Jane has some work to do this week too, early morning and late at night.  Then there is the laundry and the housework, the kids homework time, baths and bed.  I'm getting much help there from family and friends, though.  God is so good.

If you've written me snail mail, or are waiting on me for a letter via 52 weeks of mail, I will be sitting down Tuesday morning to get those answered, so just hang in there!

After work tomorrow, we'll be going to get our Christmas tree!!!  I LOVE this time of year.  I will post photos as soon as it's all up and decorated.  I'm headed right now to bring all the stuff out of storage.  I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I will post again as soon as I can!

Love y'all!

Getting and Giving

Yet again I find myself retro-posting blog entries!  Another week has roared by and I'm way behind on my Frank Friday, 52 Weeks of Mail, Music Monday, Video Wednesdays flipping everything.  Don't forget to check the Blog Archives list to see what might have gotten slipped in that you may have missed in the update feeds.

I am loving my new job and am getting lots of hours!  I worked from 1 til closing last night.  I get to do that again tonight and then have Thanksgiving off.  Black Friday and Saturday will be hectic, but not horrible, as I'm set down for very reasonable hours.  (By reasonable, I mean my full 8 hour shifts don't start at 4 a.m.)  Sunday afternoon, I am planning on taking a couple of hours to get completely caught up here on The Modest Peacock.  I have a lovely little journal that I write out a post schedule in (and then scribble all over, as things swap and change and get mixed around!).  I also write out post ideas/memory joggers for later reference.  So rest assured, dear reader, I have some good posts in store if you will just hang in there with me! :)

In the meantime, I'm hosting another giveaway!

You may have seen the Avon widget on my righthand sidebar.  I've been an Avon Rep for 2 full years now, and I love it!  I'm still getting started, really- it takes time to grow a business, especially when you can't devote full time to it because of kids and other responsibilities, etc- but so far I have loved getting to know people in my community.  I buy as much Avon as I sell, but it all works out in the end. :)  Well, Avon had these FABULOUS cosmetic bags to go with some skin care products a few campaigns back and I had to get a few to share!  They are 9 and 1/2 inches long by about 6 and 1/2 inches tall with a zipper on top and a see-through back.

(Cards not included, but I will be throwing in some other mail goodies with it)

They are technically "cosmetic bags", but the possibilities are endless as to how you could use them!  I'm using mine for a mini writing kit to take along with me to places- a couple of favorite pens, some postcards, some notecards, and some stamps and voila!  Letter writing stuff that goes where I do! :)

I have 3 that I will give away- one now, and the other two sometime throughout next year.  So if you don't win this one, you'll have another chance later!  (If you just want to go ahead and purchase one (or several), you can email me privately and I will help you with that.  They are $10.00 each, plus tax and shipping.)

The drawing for this one will take place on Saturday, Dec 10th.  I'm giving an extra couple of days because of the Thanksgiving holiday and a lot of people not in town/online because they are spending time with family (which is exactly as it should be! :)).

HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!  I LOVE YOU AND I AM THANKFUL FOR YOU! :)

Yours Ever,
Jenny

Still Alive

I did not die.

I have been SUPER BUSY this last week and there hasn't been time to do the posts that I wanted to do the way that I wanted to do them.  So here is a big ole "HI!!!" from over here, and I will do my best to start catching you up on all the latest goings on in a post (or 2) tomorrow.  

Love to all,

Jenny

NaBloWriMo

While catching up on my blog reads today, I found a link on MYFEATHEREDNEST to NaBloWriMo.  (That's "National Blog Writer's Month", for all of you acronym/text abbreviation challenged people.) :)

The goal is to post a blog a day for the whole month of October.  Like the April A-Z Challenge.  (But not.)

I know I have been behind on my regular scheduled posts, and finding this on the first day of October, plus the GORGEOUS cool weather and crisp breeze outside has been the perfect catalyst to get me back in Blogging Gear! :)

When I did the A-Z Challenge in April, I thought of all kinds of excuses as to why I am "too busy" to blog, and how I was sure to mess it up and not complete the challenge.  But you know what?  People were so supportive, and several actually LIKED what I was writing, and I found that my entire day was more productive overall when I got my butt up early (or scheduled a post before bed at night) and met the challenge!  And I did it!  On May 1st, I got 2 awards for completing it! (You can see them on the right hand sidebar.)  And I felt my self-esteem and sense of contributory worth rise up a few notches!

So that kind of leads in to today's prompt: "Why do you blog?"

I blog because I'm discovering my identity, my interests and my voice.  I've 'met' some other amazing people through blogs, and have learned many new things!  I've discovered that there are people out there whom I can connect with, and be friends with, even if we have very different life-styles.  It's taught me to broaden my horizons and knowledge, while still staying firmly anchored in who I am, what I believe, and at the same time, it allows me to chronicle the journey of who and where I am now, through time to become who and where I want to be!

Things I've discovered while blogging:
Beautiful Art
New Friends
My Strengths
My Weaknesses
Good Recipes
"How To" Tutorials
Courage to Share my Faith
Opportunities to Serve Others
Laughter
Book Suggestions
Feelings of Accomplishment and Success (which then lead to more of the same in other areas of my life)

So here's to a post every day, more giveaways, and friends I haven't met yet!

It Will Be Worth It!

Hey!  You!  Yes, you, person who has been faithfully reading my blog posts and wondering if I dropped off the face of the planet recently!

This place-holder post is to let you know to not give up on me!

Why?

Because you love me and stay with me no matter what, because that's what friends do! ;D

But also because between now and December 31st, I will be hosting no less than (and possibly more than!) 8 giveaways!  It's true!  Why that many?  Well, for a number of reasons, as the posts related to them will show.

That, and you know what, bribery works with my kids and we all like to get pretty stuff in the mail, so I figure it will work on you as well! LOL.  So tell all of your friends (the more hits and followers milestones I achieve, I will add on more giveaways to celebrate!) and watch for clues, sneak peeks and full out Giveaway Posts, starting next Monday!  :)

You're very welcome.

Have Some Insulin Ready...

For years my Grandmother has made this awesome banana pudding.  She taught me how to make it and for a long time now as I've stood over the saucepan, constantly stirring to make sure the mixture didn't stick on the bottom, I've let my mind wander to what other variations could be made off of the basic recipe.

It's just a vanilla custard of sugar, flour, egg yolks, milk and margarine.  It doesn't become "banana" pudding until I pour it over the sliced bananas and vanilla wafers in the baking dish. Hmmmm....

A couple of weeks ago, my friends TJ and Kayla Brown were visiting and I made shepherd's pie for supper.  Afterward, Kayla helped me make a banana pudding for dessert.  As she worked on the meringue and I tended the custard, I shared with her my idea of making something new.  We brainstormed about all kinds of possibilities, but ultimately kept coming back to the idea of turning the regular custard into a chocolate one.

There is a festival coming up next weekend, and I've invited them back to visit again.  I thought it would be wonderful if I could experiment with the recipe and, if I hit on a winner, present it to them for dessert when they come over.

After scouring Allrecipes.com to find the ratios for a chocolate custard (I knew I wasn't the first person to think of all this), I put together what I thought would be the ultimate chocolate dessert recipe.  I didn't get to try it until early this afternoon, but when I got the opportunity, I went straight to work on it.
 Oh. My. Goodness.

It is super sweet.  (Like, "hear-your-teeth-rot" kind of sweet!)  It is super chocolatey.  It is SUPER GOOD!!!

Of course I am too generous to keep something like this all to myself!  Here are some photos, followed by the recipe itself.  Enjoy!*

Ingredients:

(Custard)

3 egg yolks

1 ½ cups sugar

4 Tbs self-rising flour

2 Tbs cocoa

1 ½ cups milk

2 Tbs butter or margarine

(Meringue)

3 egg whites

½ cup sugar

¼ tsp cocoa

Approx half a package of chocolate creame Oreos. (We used Kroger brand “Chocolate Lover’s Kiddos”)

Directions:

Line the bottom of an 8x8 square glass baking dish with chocolate creme Oreos.

For custard: In a medium sauce pan, stir together sugar, flour and cocoa.  In small bowl, beat egg yolks and milk together.  Stir beaten egg and milk in with dry mixture.  Over medium heat, stir constantly, breaking up any lumps, until sauce begins to thicken. (Take special care that it doesn’t stick/scorch on the bottom!)  Stir in butter/margarine until melted.  Continue stirring until custard is a medium thick consistency.

Pour custard over the Oreos and let sit while meringue is being made.

For meringue: Preheat oven to 350°.  In large mixing bowl, mix ½ cup sugar with ½ tsp cocoa.  With electric mixer, whip egg whites with dry mixture until stiff peaks form.  

Pour meringue over custard and spread evenly until all sides are sealed.  Bake until top of meringue is golden brown.  

Serve warm, or let cool and refrigerate for 1 hour and serve cold.  Keep any left overs refrigerated.

*I'm completely serious about how rich this thing is.  If your family finds you dead on the kitchen floor, it is NOT my fault!

Posting 6 hours away from home...

We're in Destin, FL!  Once again, my wonderful friend Marilyn is hosting me and supporting my beach addiction.  This time I have my Emily-bug with me, and my friend Meg and her 2 year old daughter.  It was a long ride down, with 2 stops, but we made it safe and sound and finally crashed in bed super late.

This morning I got up at 7:30 local time and went for a run on the beach!  I've been looking forward to that for a long time.  Su over at Cheekyness has been a huge inspiration to me in my discovery of the fact that I LIKE to run.  I ran from the beach access in front of Marilyn's street down to the sign for the Henderson Beach State Park.  All told, I went about 1.8 miles.

I know I was supposed to post the 3 entries from last week that are overdue, but after that drive I was just too bushed.  Frank is along for this trip, of course, so there will be some great monkey hilarity come next Frank Friday.  Hopefully tonight after Emily is asleep, I can post the one from last week, which is titled "Banana?"  Look for it to show up very soon.  I'm also still formulating last week's Go Here Thursday.  It's harder to think of places and stuff to recommend (without repeating something) than you would think.  So I will be working on that tonight, too (hopefully).  Thanks for hanging in with me, and I hope you will enjoy the results forthcoming. :)

Now I'm about to grab a shower and get ready to tote the preschoolers to the BEACH!  We're going to slather them down in Avon Sunblock, put on their new beach hats (yes, there will be photos!) and start playing in the sand!  Wait... We have to get breakfast first.  They had Cheerios.  But I want.... the glorious thing that is featured in this edition of Music Monday!  By comedian Tim Hawkins, here is the Chick-fil-a song.  Enjoy!

OUCHIE!

Last year I was enrolled in Jazzercise in Douglasville.  I paid up for 6 months and loved it, loved it, loved it!  Then my time expired right before Thanksgiving.  Which was the WORST time of the year to stop an exercise routine!  But I didn't have the money, at the time, to renew and I was so swamped with Christmas and 3 jobs that I wouldn't have been able to go back anyway and still get 5 hours of sleep in a night.

This month, though, I had some money saved, so I decided to quit procrastinating (well, about that, anyway.) and get my butt back into shape.  I still have a podgy belly left from having Emily and she turns 3 years old in 3 weeks.  No. More. Excuses.

Day before yesterday I got myself ready before dropping the kids off at school, and Em and I headed up to town.  I love the 9:30 class with Elizabeth.  She also has kids at Mason Creek Elementary, in some of the same classes as mine, actually, so we're always seeing each other at the school things.  She's always smiling and positive and telling me she misses me in her class.  I need more of that encouragement in my life!!!  I was front and center on Monday, after having paid up through August, and ready to be back in her class.

I foolishly believed that since I have been to a few Swing dances in those months I didn't do Jazzercise, that I could jump right in.  Well, the jumping only lasted for the first 15 minutes and by the time we reached the top of the curve, I was gasping for breath like an asthmatic shetland pony who's toting a 400 lb. rich noble on its back for a couple hundred miles. (How about that imagery!)  But after the class I felt GREAT!  I felt strong and happy and ready to take on the world!

It took 24 hours for my body to figure out what the heck had just hit it.

Yesterday my thighs determinedly turned to jello any time I tried to climb the stairs.

My abs and sides were all "What?! NO."

Every muscle- some that I had even forgotten that I HAD- was letting me know loud and clear that they didn't appreciate the rude wake up call they had been put through!

Today was some better, but my routine is set for every other day, so off I went this morning to Elizabeth's class again! ;)
My shoulders, abs and thighs hate me so so so badly right now.
In a few weeks the soreness will work itself out and my hard work will start to show.  But until then, every step hurts, and bending down to pick anything up results in an involuntary "OWWWW!"

I'm hoping that tomorrow I'm not so sore that I can't get out of bed!  Because this woman has places to go and things to do! :)